SnoopyStyle Top high school student Todd Bowden (Brad Renfro) uncovers his elderly neighbor Arthur Denker (Ian McKellen)'s secret identity as Nazi war criminal Kurt Dussander. Instead of turning Dussander in, Todd blackmails him to recount stories of the Holocaust and his inner Nazi is revived. Todd's grades go down and his interest in life suffers. School counselor Edward French calls him in and Dussander pretends to be his grandfather. Dussander turns the tables on him claiming to pull him down with him if the authorities are called in. Todd starts to study again and go out with friends. Then Dussander raises the stakes.This film based on Stephen King's story has its creepiness. Renfro and McKellen do their roles well. After McKellen goose-step in the Nazi uniform, I expected him to convince Todd to his Nazi ways. It would be great for him to persuade Todd to hate. I don't buy his threat to pull him down with him because the situation is easily explained. It makes Todd a lot dumber than I want him to be. Instead of threats, it would be more compelling to lure him by reasoning. As soon as Dussander made the threat, any reasonable kid would go to the cops to spin the story his way and preempt any story that Dussander would tell. It's creepy but I never bought all the way in on this movie.

Sean Lamberger Ian McKellan is a Nazi war criminal hiding long-term in suburban America. Four decades after the war, a bright high school student with a fascination about WWII marks him on a bus ride and the two embark on a lengthy game of one-upsmanship. Oddly, the kid seems the more villainous of the two, though McKellan is himself far from heroic. I can't shake the sense that the concept was more daring than the film in this case. Featuring a Nazi in a decidedly grey light is a different take, for sure, but I felt like the filmmakers were always too afraid to go anywhere truly risqué with that material, and the core relationship between the two leads is toothless and pantomimed. Maybe that can be primarily chalked up to acting - Brad Renfro, who plays the kid, is positively grating in the role - but even removing that from the equation doesn't completely settle my stomach. It's a film that dances and loiters, but rarely has much to say of genuine power or meaning; wannabe edgy, using the taboo of an old war uniform to mask a serious lack of substance. Even the big reveal at the end, when everything comes apart at the seams, is hollow, telegraphed and half an hour behind schedule.

Rhi Scott Sadly whatever made the novel good is lacking in this adaptation.Apt Pupil is a movie that feels like a new director took over every five minutes with a different idea of where the movie should go. It creates a vortex that sucks up any chance at emotional connection to the characters or overall film.What little plot there is gets rushed. There are several times when the film is too lazy or simply incapable of properly showing passages of time so it simply cuts to black 'X weeks/months later..' screens.Poor editing destroys any chance to introspect on the conversations between Kurt and Todd. One moment Kurt will be describing Holocaust victims defecating on themselves in the gas chamber and then abruptly a basketball is on screen and Todd is at school in gym class. Then a moment later his friend is talking about dates and parties in the locker-room.The on screen chemistry between Kurt and Todd is that of a wet paper-towel. The characterizations feel wrong and not in an interesting way. Think of an adult being scared of a baby. That's basically what you get. Kurt, a former SS officer who worked in both Bergen-Belsen and the notorious Auschwitz camp shrinks constantly away at Todd who is nothing but an angsty spoiled emo teenager. The movie would've been far better served with a more aggressive stance from Kurt, especially when the movie is attempting to show how evil and 'badass' the Nazis were.Even without any sort of chemistry and with Kurt being blackmailed and forced to dress up for Todd, he abruptly takes a shine to him ala Miyagi style and impersonates being his Grandfather to the guidance counsellor and the movie shifts into Todd's school life and trying to get his grades up.Then it shifts back to them hating each other. Then abruptly Kurt, who is a wanted fugitive who has intelligently and carefully concealed his identity for decades and lived a law-abiding life in the US decides to stab someone.None of it makes much sense and we care even less to figure out why because he doesn't like Todd and Todd seems to be a blossoming sociopath who doesn't like anyone except himself.Ultimately I feel like what I watched was a boy's masturbatory fantasy about having his own private SS officer to dress up, interrogate and harass mixed in with odd and boring clips of teenage high school angst.Not good for a movie that bills itself to be basically a Nazi thriller.

MeloDee The movie Apt Pupil begins with a slow, but definitely solid start. Our protagonist, Todd Bowen, is an honor student at his high school. His history teacher is teaching "holocaust week" and Todd becomes intrigued and heads off to the library after class for more information.On his bus ride home, he spots a man who looks familiar- a little too familiar. Todd recognizes him to be Kurt Dussander, a Nazi who is being hunted for various crimes he committed during the second world war. After collecting a lot of evidence proving that the man he spotted was indeed Kurt Dussander, Todd decides to confront him. He gives Dussander (who is living under the alias Arthur Denker) an ultimatum; tell me all about your involvement in the holocaust, or I turn you and all the evidence over to the police. Dussander agrees to share his stories with Todd, and thus was the beginning of a confederacy that was to lead both parties involved down a path of darkness. Ian McKellan gives an amazing performance as the sarcastic and witty Kurt Dussander. In my opinion, McKellan definitely carried the movie. He was totally convincing as the seventy-five year-old former Nazi, so much so that it was almost hard to imagine him as the same man who would later play as the vivacious villain Magneto of the X-men series, or the kindhearted and powerful wizard Gandalf of the Lord of the of the Rings. Brad Renfro gave a less thrilling performance as Todd Bowen, the highly intelligent protagonist with a shade for the sadistic. Renfro was too many sullen stares, bored smirks and petulant exclamations, and too little harsh resolve, but at moments he did shine. And perhaps his moody performance was somewhat appropriate to the character, a teenage boy entangled in something from which he could not escape.I cannot accurately draw a comparison between the book and the movie, having only seen the movie, but I can say that from what I've heard and read, the book and movie should be judged on their own merits. The movie isn't so much as an adaptation as much as almost a reinterpretation or retelling of the original story, and has a drastically different ending from the book. All in all I can say that I enjoyed the film- it didn't absolutely blow me away or have me eager to watch it a second time- but it was worth the paltry sum that I paid for it and maybe more.